The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works
Page 280
That in the natures of their lords rebel,
Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods,
Renege, affirm and turn their halcyon beaks
With every gale and vary of their masters,
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Knowing naught, like dogs, but following.
[to Oswald] A plague upon your epileptic visage.
Smile you my speeches as I were a fool?
Goose, if I had you upon Sarum plain,
I’d drive ye cackling home to Camelot.
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CORNWALL What, art thou mad, old fellow?
GLOUCESTER How fell you out, say that.
KENT No contraries hold more antipathy
Than I and such a knave.
CORNWALL
Why dost thou call him knave? What is his fault?
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KENT His countenance likes me not.
CORNWALL
No more perchance does mine, nor his, nor hers.
KENT Sir, ’tis my occupation to be plain:
I have seen better faces in my time
Than stands on any shoulder that I see
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Before me at this instant.
CORNWALL This is some fellow
Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect
A saucy roughness and constrains the garb
Quite from his nature. He cannot flatter, he;
An honest mind and plain, he must speak truth;
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An they will take it, so; if not, he’s plain.
These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends
Than twenty silly-ducking observants
That stretch their duties nicely.
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KENT Sir, in good faith, QorQ in sincere verity,
Under th’allowance of your great aspect,
Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire
On flickering Phoebus’ front –
CORNWALL What mean’st QthouQ by this?
KENT To go out of my dialect, which you discommend
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so much. I know, sir, I am no flatterer. He that
beguiled you in a plain accent was a plain knave, which
for my part I will not be, though I should win your
displeasure to entreat me to’t.
CORNWALL [to Oswald] What was th’offence you gave him?
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OSWALD I never gave him any.
It pleased the King his master very late
To strike at me upon his misconstruction,
When he, compact and flattering his displeasure,
Tripped me behind; being down, insulted, railed
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And put upon him such a deal of man
That worthied him, got praises of the King
For him attempting who was self-subdued;
And in the fleshment of this dread exploit
Drew on me here again.
KENT None of these rogues and cowards
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But Ajax is their fool.
CORNWALL Fetch forth the stocks, Q hoQ!
[Exeunt one or two servants.]
You stubborn, ancient knave, you reverend braggart,
We’ll teach you.
KENT FSir,F I am too old to learn.
Call not your stocks for me; I serve the King,
On whose employment I was sent to you.
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You shall do small respect, show too bold malice
Against the grace and person of my master,
Stocking his messenger.
CORNWALL Fetch forth the stocks!
As I have life and honour, there shall he sit till noon.
REGAN
Till noon? Till night, my lord, and all night too.
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KENT Why, madam, if I were your father’s dog
You should not use me so.
REGAN Sir, being his knave, I will.
[FStocks brought out.F]
CORNWALL This is a fellow of the selfsame colour
Our sister speaks of. Come, bring away the stocks.
GLOUCESTER Let me beseech your grace not to do so.
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QHis fault is much, and the good King, his master,
Will check him for’t. Your purposed low correction
Is such as basest and contemnedst wretches
For pilferings and most common trespasses
Are punished with.Q
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The King, Fhis master, needsF must take it ill
That he, so slightly valued in his messenger,
Should have him thus restrained.
CORNWALL I’ll answer that.
REGAN My sister may receive it much more worse
To have her gentleman abused, assaulted,
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QFor following her affairs. Put in his legs.Q
[Kent is put in the stocks.]
FCORNWALLF Come, my Q goodQ lord, away.
FExeuntF [all but Gloucester and Kent].
GLOUCESTER
I am sorry for thee, friend; ’tis the Duke’s pleasure,
Whose disposition all the world well knows
Will not be rubbed nor stopped. I’ll entreat for thee.
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KENT
Pray Q youQ do not, sir. I have watched and travelled
hard.
Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I’ll whistle.
A good man’s fortune may grow out at heels.
Give you good morrow.
GLOUCESTER
The Duke’s too blame in this; ’twill be ill taken.
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Exit.FF
KENT Good King, that must approve the common saw,
Thou out of heaven’s benediction com’st
To the warm sun.
Approach, thou beacon to this under-globe,
That by thy comfortable beams I may
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Peruse this letter. Nothing almost sees miracles
But misery. I know ’tis from Cordelia,
Who hath most fortunately been informed
Of my obscured course,
[reading the letter] and shall find time
From this enormous state, seeking to give
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Losses their remedies. All weary and o’erwatched,
Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold
This shameful lodging.
Fortune, good night: smile once more; turn thy wheel.
[Q Sleeps.Q]
Enter EDGAR. [2.3]
EDGAR I heard myself proclaimed,
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And by the happy hollow of a tree
Escaped the hunt. No port is free, no place
That guard and most unusual vigilance
Does not attend my taking. While I may scape
I will preserve myself, and am bethought
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To take the basest and most poorest shape
That ever penury in contempt of man
Brought near to beast. My face I’ll grime with filth,
Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots
[10]
And with presented nakedness outface
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The winds and persecutions of the sky.
The country gives me proof and precedent
Of Bedlam beggars, who, with roaring voices,
Strike in their numbed FandF mortified Q bareQ arms
Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary;
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And with this horrible object, from low farms,
Poor pelting villages, sheepcotes and mills,
Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers,
Enforce their charity. Poor Turlygod, poor Tom,
[20]
That’s something yet: Edgar I nothing am. Exit.
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Enter LEAR,FFool and a Knight.F [2.4]
LEAR
<
br /> ’Tis strange that they should so depart from home
And not send back my messenger.
KNIGHT As I learned,
The night before there was no purpose Fin themF
Of this remove.
KENT [Wakes.] Hail to thee, noble master.
LEAR Ha? Mak’st thou this shame thy pastime?
FKENT No, my lord.F
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FOOL Ha, ha, Q lookQ, he wears cruel garters. Horses are
tied by the heads, dogs and bears by the neck, monkeys
by the loins and men by the legs. When a man’s
overlusty at legs, then he wears wooden nether-stocks.
LEAR [to Kent]
What’s he that hath so much thy place mistook
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To set thee here?
KENT It is both he and she,
[11]
Your son and daughter.
LEAR No.
KENT Yes.
LEAR No, I say.
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KENT I say, yea.
QLEAR No, no, they would not.
KENT Yes, they have.Q
LEAR By Jupiter, I swear no.
FKENT By Juno, I swear ay.
LEARF They durst not do’t:
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They could not, would not do’t – ’tis worse than murder
[21]
To do upon respect such violent outrage.
Resolve me with all modest haste which way
Thou mightst deserve or they impose this usage,
Coming from us.
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KENT My lord, when at their home
I did commend your highness’ letters to them,
Ere I was risen from the place that showed
My duty kneeling, came there a reeking post,
Stewed in his haste, half breathless, panting forth
From Goneril, his mistress, salutations;
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Delivered letters, spite of intermission,
[31]
Which presently they read; on those contents
They summoned up their meiny, straight took horse,
Commanded me to follow and attend
The leisure of their answer, gave me cold looks;
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And meeting here the other messenger,
Whose welcome I perceived had poisoned mine,
Being the very fellow which of late
Displayed so saucily against your highness,
Having more man than wit about me, drew.
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He raised the house with loud and coward cries.
[41]
Your son and daughter found this trespass worth
The shame which here it suffers.
FFOOL Winter’s not gone yet, if the wild geese fly that way.
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Fathers that wear rags
Do make their children blind,
But fathers that bear bags
Shall see their children kind:
Fortune, that arrant whore,
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Ne’er turns the key to the poor.
[51]
But for all this thou shalt have as many dolours for thy
daughters as thou canst tell in a year.F
LEAR O, how this mother swells up toward my heart!
Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow,
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Thy element’s below. Where is this daughter?
KENT With the Earl, sir, F hereF within.
LEAR Follow me not; stay here. FExit.F
KNIGHT Made you no more offence but what you speak of?
KENT None. How chance the King comes with so small
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a number?
[61]
FOOL An thou hadst been set i’the stocks for that
question, thou hadst well deserved it.
KENT Why, fool?
FOOL We’ll set thee to school to an ant, to teach thee
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there’s no labouring i’the winter. All that follow their
noses are led by their eyes but blind men, and there’s
not a nose among twenty but can smell him that’s
stinking. Let go thy hold when a great wheel runs
down a hill lest it break thy neck with following Q itQ;
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but the great one that goes upward, let him draw thee
[71]
after. When a wise man gives thee better counsel give
me mine again; I would have none but knaves follow it,
since a fool gives it.
That sir which serves Fand seeksF for gain,
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And follows but for form,
Will pack when it begins to rain,
And leave thee in the storm;
But I will tarry, the fool will stay,
And let the wise man fly:
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